A very nice typewriter simulator.

7 years ago

OverType

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Tags: art, computers, glitch, retrocomputing

8 Responses:

1. Pavel Lishin says:

   7 years ago at 1:22 pm

   I want this as an IntelliJ plugin.

   • Daopr says:

     7 years ago at 7:55 pm

     + 1. I want it, too.

2. Jeff Weinstein says:

   7 years ago at 1:35 pm

   I should make my kids use this for a week just so they know how good they have it.

3. George Bull says:

   7 years ago at 9:22 am

   I suppose this is a decent manual-typewriter simulator. But what I really want is an IBM Selectric Model 72 simulator. With margin control and variable-width type [was that even a feature of the 72? note to self: look that up].

4. Leonardo Herrera says:

   7 years ago at 2:44 pm

   Such a waste of time. Mine, of course. Spent too much time on it.

5. Craig says:

   7 years ago at 6:31 am

   If only we could take this to the next level with haptic feedback, maybe some kind of USB device.

6. Skrubly says:

   7 years ago at 11:27 am

   Interesting but I was surprised with how much this is not like using a manual typewriter! Picking nits:

   * If you want to do variable inking of characters, you should have letters a and z be usually lighter than others because those are pinky letters, and on a manual with a long throw that's just sort of how they tend to come out

   * You absolutely can hit more than one key at a time on a manual typewriter - I wouldn't be able to type ~30-40wpm without that ability. Hitting the key initiates the throw, and the delay between that and the strike is quite significant when it comes to touch typing. While you can have multiple keys down you can only have one at a time within the rough 1/4" arc right before it strikes the platen.

   * Would add platen brittleness rating - old, dry platens produce slipping paper and different faint characters because the whole typeface doesn't contact the paper properly.

   * Way too much line wobble in the example, but the default brokenness 20 is pretty accurate.

   * The overstrike capability is spot on.

   * Most (maybe all?) of my manuals don't include a 1 numeral - you use lowercase l instead

   * Overstrike exclamation point looks good (' backspace .)

   It's nice to see typewriters getting some attention, regardless.

7. DW says:

   7 years ago at 8:59 pm

   I have a real manual typewriter and I can type faster on that than I can type on overtype. I AM finding that sometimes the manual typewriter helps me overcome my writer's block-- not only because I go in a room with no other devices and can't use the internet, but also, because I can't backspace and edit. Apparently I delete and rewrite things much more than I thought, causing me to slow down.